


Sticks and Stones

by hatsuji (pyxz)



Series: The Eve [2]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Divergent!AU, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-18 17:47:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11879637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pyxz/pseuds/hatsuji
Summary: Kyungsoo sings sweet songs to fill Jongin's silences.





	1. WHITE NOISE

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by the Divergent series :)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It will be my undoing if I become my obsession."
> 
> Kai gives up his Courage to be Kind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> um its 1 am get rekt. all my fics are unbeta'd so expect typos!

For most people, the Choosing Ceremony is a momentous occasion—an anticipated date, a _very_ _big_ _thing_. People cry and smile and cheer. They clap, they sneer, and they wipe tears from their faces and give each other long goodbye speeches and even longer goodbye kisses. For most people, this day is supposed to determine the rest of their lives. 

Kai thinks that his life was determined years ago.

No one really reacts to his choice, or maybe he just doesn’t notice because he doesn’t even spare Dauntless a glance once his blood drips on Abnegation’s stones. But he’s not surprised. He has lived alone for years. The silence has long since stopped bothering him.

The sea of gray that is Abnegation welcomes him with kind glances and placid smiles. Someone claps his back and another person offers his seat. Abnegation continue on quietly; they don’t shout and wail like the Dauntless do every time someone chooses them.

There they go again, cheering loudly as coal sizzles and an Amity boy with hair as orange as his shirt abandons his family to sit with them. He watches the boy smile widely, sticking out like a sore thumb in the sea of Dauntless’ black, and Kai feels no longing.

 

+++

 

After the ceremony, the crowd disperses into five different directions. The Ceremony was held at the Hub, meaning Abnegation initiates don’t even have to leave the building for their orientation.

Abnegation initiates are ushered into a small classroom. Abnegation members—kids, adults, and the elderly—exit the building. (Seeing old people is his first taste of culture shock; there are rarely any Dauntless older than forty.)

Kai finds a seat in one of the benches. The room falls into the quiet chattering of friends that immediately dissipates as soon as the doors open. A thin, tall man with gray hair and thick glasses walks into the room. He wears some variation of Abnegation’s distinctive gray clothing and stands behind the desk in front.

“Good afternoon,” he greets, his voice soft, almost soothing. It's very different from the booming voices or the menacing, taunting quietness of his trainers back at Dauntless. This man speaks with no urgency, no threat. It makes Kai feel at ease and helps him concentrate. “Firstly, I would like to welcome all of our transfer initiates. We would like to extend our gratitude to you for choosing Abnegation as your faction. And to the Abnegation-born, welcome back.

Now, I will be orienting you about your initiation.”

The man, who belatedly introduces himself as Yen, goes on for the next half-hour about the process and methods of Abnegation initiation. It’s so far removed from Dauntless’ much more high-stakes and merciless initiation process that it shocks Kai. There seems to be no way to fail the Abnegation initiation and become factionless—and for this, among many other things, he is thankful.

 

+++

 

There are no dormitories assigned for the initiates. They assign two initiates to one of the many families living in one of the many gray houses that line the streets of the district; Abnegation-born are free to return to their homes as long as they bring a transfer along with them.

Kai is assigned to a family living near the North-end of town along with an initiate from Candor. They walk down the sidewalk in silence; every once in a while someone will pass them and bow their head towards their direction, so they follow suite and bow their heads back. Kai glances at the girl, he knows they’re the same age, but he thinks she looks almost a year or two older than he does; she has pin-straight black hair down to her waist, and her black-and-white dress makes her lips look bright red.

Suddenly, she looks at him. Kai immediately looks away, flushed.

“ _Shy_? A _Dauntless_? No,” she starts with the signature Candor sarcasm. Kai grins along. She smiles back kindly.

“I’m Krystal,” she introduces herself, a kind of tenderness in her eyes despite the callousness of her mouth. Immediately, Kai thinks she will be good at this—at the Abnegation life dedicated to kindness and service.

“I’m Kai,” he replies.

Suddenly, she stops walking. Krystal looks up at the house in front of them: gray walls, doors and windows identical to every other in the neighborhood.

“This is it,” Krystal says, then walks to the front door and rings the doorbell.

A middle-aged woman in a gray dress opens the door. She seems them and smiles, and immediately steps aside to let them enter. “Come in, come in,” she greets accommodatingly, and Kai finds himself loving every moment more and more.

Inside, it’s warm and toasty and… _cozy_. Kai recognizes the feeling because he has never felt it before. This house doesn’t quite yet feel like home, but Kai looks at the cement ceilings and wooden stairs, the simple décor and the sparse furniture, and he thinks it could be.

The woman ushers them into the living room—a plain little couch, two chairs beside it and a little table. Kai takes a seat and breathes in the homey scent of the room.

“You must be Jongin,” the woman returns with a pitcher of water and two glasses, and her head turns to either of them as she talks. “And you must be Soojung.”

If _Krystal_ is as surprised as he is about the sudden use of their real names, she doesn’t show it. Krystal nods and bows her head calmly. Her smile and her eyes are kind, Jongin notices, and, briefly, he wonders if he looks anything as gentle when he smiles. “Yes,” she answers politely. “We’re very thankful to be in your home,” she continues. Jongin finds himself falling into silence, deciding how he feels about reverting back into his old identity.

“It’s no trouble at all, dear,” the woman replies, standing still as if she has forgotten that there’s a chair right beside her.

“You can call me Yesul,” she tells the both of them. “I have a six-year-old, Yeri. She’ll be arriving any moment from school. And my husband works at the city hall, he’ll be home around dinner time.” She speaks and speaks, and Jongin can’t help noticing the creases decorating her face. Did she get them from smiling too much? He has also noticed that she doesn’t stop smiling.

“I just finished making dinner, actually,” Yesul says. “We do rotations around here. So, tomorrow, my husband will make dinner. Then, the day after that, little Yeri will. Then, you two follow. Do you know how to cook?” she inquires.

Then they go on talking about house rules and Abnegation living until the sun goes down. It should have been an arduous conversation, but, despite the initial discomfort of being called by his real name, Jongin finds himself growing more and more comfortable in his new Abnegation shoes with every new thing they talk about.

The night comes. Little Yeri comes home, a smiley little girl with bright yellow hair and a skip in her step, followed by Hyuk, the man of the house. He welcomes them to their home, too, with smiles and simple words.

Yesul shows them to their shared room after dinner. Abnegation don’t waste anything, after all—not even space.

“Lights out at ten, alright?” she says before she leaves. They nod, and she bids them good night.

 

+++

 

An hour after dinner finds Jongin staring out the window and Soojung changing into sleepwear; the Kim’s were kind enough to stock their cabinets with necessities.

“Hey, can you help me with this?” Soojung walks backwards towards him, hair gathered to one side. She’s talking about her dress’ zipper.

Jongin reminds himself that she’s Candor as he pulls the zipper down.

“Thanks,” Soojung says. She walks back to her closet and doesn’t even tell him to look away when she starts stripping out of her dress. Jongin turns his gaze back to the moon.

He has never seen it so big and so pale before. It’s hard to watch the movement of the world when your home is under the ground, after all.

“Aren’t you ‘gonna change?” Soojung asks. When Jongin turns around to look at her, she’s already dressed in a long gray sleeping gown. He hopes his sleepwear looks different.

“Yeah,” he answers, still in a bit of a daze. He leaves his place by the window, however, and goes on to change into pyjamas and a plain shirt.

There’s a lull for a moment, then it stretches out into infinity. Whatever conversation they were supposed to have gets sucked into the void of the comfortable silence of the room.

Soojung is already tucked in, so Jongin follows suite.

He stares up at the cement ceiling and thinks of something to say, but the light flickers off before he can think of anything. He doesn’t look, but he feels as if the entire city has flickered off: workers turning in their hats for the night.

“Good night,” he says on an impulse.

“Good night,” Soojung replies after a few heartbeats.

Then, everything is quiet. No muffled screaming or shouting, no noise of laughter and yelling and talking. Nothing. It’s so quiet that it’s almost white noise; that has always been Jongin’s favorite song.


	2. HEAVEN

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amity's community is alive; Kyungsoo listens to its' heartbeat like a song.

His mother cries after the Choosing Ceremony although she promised yesterday that she wouldn’t. Kyungsoo has never seen her lie before.

“Come on, mom. You said you wouldn’t cry,” he tells her.

Kyungsoo glances towards the Amity exit and sees that people are beginning to file out. He tries to stretch the minutes. “Okay, mom, come on,” he tries to soothe, like rubbing sand paper on a wound, wrapping his arms around his mother and letting her wet his white blazer.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she says in the jittery way she talks. “But you can’t blame me for being emotional. My only son is leaving us,” she wails quietly, wiping her tears with the tissue he gave her.

The words sound harsh when they leave her mouth, but Kyungsoo knows she doesn’t mean anything by it. She’s not mad at him or at his decision; she’s just stating the facts of the situation.

“You have Kyunghye coming here,” he tries to console her, putting his hand over his mother’s swollen seven-month-old belly. This seems to work for a moment.

“Take care out there, okay?” his mother says, sobs finally subsiding. She won’t stop rubbing his cheeks and he doesn’t stop her.

Kyungsoo nods.

His mother smiles shakily. “I’ll be waiting for your potatoes, Kyung, okay?”

He laughs. She smiles with him. “Okay, mom,” he nods again. “I have to go.”

It takes a little prying, but his mother finally loosens her grip.

Kyungsoo falls into step with the files of Amity leaving the venue. He glances towards his mother one last time and sees her standing in the exact same spot.

 

+++

 

Amity ride the trucks they use to transport produce to get back to their compound. Kyungsoo thinks there’s something charmingly practical and simple about this.

They ride through the city, past old buildings and new buildings, past broken playgrounds and dry marshes. They drive and drive until they reach the fence. A huge metal gate and the Dauntless that guard it greet them. After the Dauntless finish checking the trucks, the gate slides open to let them through.

Kyungsoo has never been outside the fence. It’s breathtaking. 

Lush greenery stretches for miles and miles—as far as the eye can see. The skies even look bluer here, the sun brighter, the air cleaner, and life more vibrant. 

“Wow,” he speaks without hearing himself.

The Amity boy sitting next to him looks at what he’s looking at and snickers. “Yeah, it’s impressive, huh. Wait ‘till you see the compound during a bonfire,” he says, alighting Kyungsoo’s excitement.

 

+++

 

The Amity compound is nothing like Kyungsoo could have ever expected: homes and greenhouses lay scattered around a small hill, and on top of the hill sits the faction’s center. Men, women, and children walk around carrying buckets of water or pots and sacks, talking and laughing.

The community is alive, and the sound of it’s heartbeat almost sounds like a song—not too far away, an amity boy sits under the shade of a tree Kyungsoo has never seen before, plucking the strings of a ukulele and humming a happy tune.

The initiates are brought to the top of the hill, and after Amity’s leader finishes giving the orientation, they are shown to their dormitories; they will be living in the heart of the city until the end of initiation. And with the view from his window, Kyungsoo thinks that’s not a particularly difficult thing to do.


End file.
